Loving Hut in Naples closed a couple of weeks ago, but the local franchisees jettisoned the vegan chain and reorganized to become Vegan Kitchen in a new location less than a mile south at Neapolitan Way.

After serving its vegan cuisine on Pine Ridge Road for seven years, some of Loving Hut’s local partners recently transitioned from an affiliation with the international chain to launching the local Vegan Kitchen on Aug. 23, said Brenna Tu, one of the restaurant’s partners helping with the transition.

“Some of our partners have gone separate ways there and then they formed a new partnership here,” Tu said. “Not necessarily everything’s the same, because it’s a completely different newly formed group.”

Considering that many similarities exist between the plant-based menus of Loving Hut and the new Vegan Kitchen, some of the restaurant’s clients and customers are confused, thinking the restaurant merely relocated and changed names, Tu said.

“It’s not a name change. There’s no affiliation with Loving Hut,” she said. “I want to make that clear because it’s a franchise over there and they’re very sensitive about that.”

But just as the Loving Hut franchise was built on a simple but strict concept for living and dining, the new local spinoff, Vegan Kitchen, parallels that philosophy and serves healthy, sustainable food.

“It’s completely vegan. Everything here is 100 percent vegan, non-GMO for sure. The people who took over really do follow that line of thinking,” Tu said. “If you are going to go vegan and healthy, you have to make sure you’re non-GMO. You have to be conscious of what you’re bringing in. The stuff we buy is fresh. Even our soup stock, we make it ourselves. It’s fresh from vegetables and all that.”

The restaurant uses a virtual cornucopia of vegetables and non-meat proteins to create an Asian fusion type of cuisine, Tu said.

“Look at our menu,” she said. “It’s Vietnamese. It’s Thai. It’s Chinese. It’s Malaysian, Indonesian, so all that fusion of flavor, because a lot of those countries and cultures have a monastic kind of following and over thousands of years they developed certain recipes and its traditional embedded in that culture and we kind of just pick and choose.”

“We do now have a heavier push for gluten free because a lot of our clientele is gluten-sensitive and people are being more aware of that,” Tu said. “They’re not necessarily celiac gluten-free, but they are gluten sensitive.”

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Vegan Shrimp Pasta with wheat noodles, vegetables and imitation shrimp is one of many dishes to make the transition from the shuttered Loving Hut to the new Vegan Kitchen in Neapolitan Way.(Photo: Kristine Gill/Naples Daily News)

The restaurant will offer the same extensive menu for both lunch and dinner.

“They’re going to introduce specials that they’ll rotate out, just new ideas that come in,” Tu said. “One of the ideas is an eggplant wrap that they are going to try.”

Many of the dozen entrees and five house specials on Vegan Kitchen’s menu have carried over from the Loving Hut menu, but the new menu isn’t divided into Heaven, Earth and Ocean entrees. Some of the names of dishes have changed, and some new dishes have been added.

At least five of the seven appetizers are similar to those that were offered at Loving Hut. The apps range from crispy golden rolls of cabbage, carrots, wheat protein and mushrooms ($6.95) to Happy Tamarind ($9.95) with wheat protein, rice chips, basil and peanuts. Other starters include spring rolls, dumplings, avocado sushi rolls and drumsticks made with panko-battered soy protein.

Entrees range from $10.95 for stir-fried mixed vegetables to $12.95 for “flavored bites” of soy protein, bell peppers, onions and sesame seeds. Many of the main dishes feature eggplant, curry or wheat protein.

Wraps and fried rice plates are $9.95 each. Salads and pad thai and vegan shrimp pasta dishes are each $11.95.

Vegan Kitchen, 794 Neapolitan Way, is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The new restaurant moved into the space of the former Pizza Hut on Neapolitan Way’s southern side, joining other restaurants such as Mr. Big Fish, Cibao Grille, Rosati's Pizza and Larry's Lunchbox.

The longtime Loving Hut restaurant recently closed on Pine Ridge Road, but it morphed into a new restaurant, Vegan Kitchen, at 794 Neapolitan Way in Naples. (Photo: Tim Aten/Naples Daily News)

Another kitchen

A longtime restaurant on Marco Island is planning to open its second location this fall in the former Loving Hut location in Naples.

NeNe’s Kitchen, a small mom-and-pop restaurant especially popular for breakfast, has operated on Marco for more than a decade. Bob Natale took over ownership of the old Taste of Chicago spot in 2005, and his son, Bob Jr., eventually joined the team of the family-owned and -operated eatery.

“We have a great reputation on the island,” Natale said. “Everybody’s been asking me, ‘When are you coming to Naples? When are you coming to Naples?’ Here I am.”

NeNe shares its name with the nickname of the owners’ beloved grandmother. The restaurant honors the family matriarch with a throwback menu of fresh comfort food served at comfortable prices.

“We pretty much know our food. It’s going to be good," said Natale, who originally hailed from Chicago. “I’m looking forward to doing my thing in Naples.”

The Natales plan to offer Naples the same breakfast and lunch menus available at the Marco location, with plans to add a dinner menu after the first year. The new NeNe’s is targeted to open next month.

“I’m shooting for Oct. 15, but we’ll see which way this storm goes,” Natale said. “If not, it will be around Nov. 1.”

The location near the northeast corner of Pine Ridge Road and U.S. 41 has an interesting history and has hosted restaurants for more than 30 years.

Before the string of restaurants, though, that site was the location of North Naples Fire District’s original station, built in the 1960s. When Pine Ridge Road was widened, the department lost enough real estate that it lacked the space to maneuver fire trucks there, so the station was relocated about a half-mile east on Pine Ridge.

Today’s nearly 3,000-square-foot restaurant structure at 975 Pine Ridge Road was built farther back from the road in 1984 and first operated as a Long John Silver’s seafood franchise for a decade before becoming a Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken restaurant chain franchise until the late ’90s. During the next decade or so, it was a string of Italian ristorantes — Chianti's, Tre Amici and Tre Fratelli’s.

Loving Hut’s more than seven-year run began there in late May 2010.

Now the nearest location of Loving Hut is in Cape Coral, and other Florida locations are in Orlando and Tampa. Although the chain’s more than 135 locations worldwide all follow the “Be Vegan, Make Peace” motto, each Loving Hut is individually owned with the autonomy to create its own menu.